The JavaSoft Inc division of Sun Microsystems Inc has chosen Advanced RISC Machines Ltd’s ARM RISC as the third microprocessor architecture for its JavaOS operating system. JavaOS, which already, of course, runs on Sparc and Intel processors, will be sold, licensed and supported directly by JavaSoft, the company said yesterday. The ARM7500E and StrongARM SA-110 processors – co-developed with Digital Equipment Corp – have had some success in the thin-client internet applications space where JavaOS is targeted (CI No 3,048), with the likes of Boundless Technologies Inc, WyseTechnology Inc, LG Electronics Ltd and Advanced RISC’s parent Acorn Computer Group Plc. Wyse and Boundless between them control over 80% of computer terminal sales, though the vast majority of these are currently dumb, rather than thin clients. Other customers include Oracle Corp’s Network Computer, the Daewoo Electronics Co and Teknema Inc Internet television set-top box, and ViewCall America Inc’s NetSurfer. DEC, which carried out the porting work for the StrongARM SA-110, claims the highest published scores for CaffeineMark 2.01 interpreted Java applet performance benchmark for a prototype Internet terminal using the SA-110. Other ARM family members, including the low-cost ARM7TDMI Thumb, the ARM7500 and the ARM810, will also support JavaOS. The chips already support embedded operating systems including pSOS, Inferno, Windows CE, OS-9, Helios, Psion EPOC, Wind River’s Tornado and Acorn’s RISC OS, itself recently liberated from the ARM chip to other CPU (CI No 3,097).
